My maternal grandfather Peter (Petar) Babarovich died the year I was born – 1935. I was born on February 21st, 1935, and he died a month later on March 5th of that year. As a result, I never knew this unique man. Nonno Babarovich was born on April 12, 1861, in the village of Splitska on the island of Brac in Croatia off the coast of Split, Yugoslavia in the Adriatic Sea. Peter was the second child of his father,…
We live in strange times. The political situation since Donald Trump assumed office resembles the 1865 English children’s novel by Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland. Alice saw a white rabbit with a pocket watch complaining he was late. She follows him down a rabbit hole, (much like the voters followed Trump down his political rabbit hole) to a strange an bizarre world. We seem to be like Alice when she asked the Chesire cat sitting in a tree: “Would you…
King County prosecutors recently filed more than thirty criminal cases against some sixreen graffiti taggers who together have caused upward of $100,000 in property damage. They have done it by scrawling their names in spray paint and defacing billboards, murals and walls in the dead of night. Graffiti taggers have caused more than $500,000 in damage in the Seattle and Tacoma areas according to the King County prosecutor’s charges. Last year, Seattle worked to remove graffiti at 23,117 locations covering…
Our government under Donald Trump mirrors George Orwell’s 1945 book Animal Farm. The book tells the story of the farm animals who overthrow their human owner in order to have a democracy, but end up with a dictator, the farm pig named “Napoleon.” He became a dictator by gradually crushing opposition and transforming himself into the absolute ruler of Animal Farm. Once in power, Napoleon abolishes democratic meetings and rules through fear, false propaganda, and deception. His philosophy about being…
The Agency is a 2024 espionage thriller television series for Showtime TV. The series is produced by actor George Clooney and staring actor Michael Fassbender with Richard Gere. A 2001 series with the same name ran for two seasons and was cancelled as controversial. The explanation for cancellation was it involved an improper exploration of international affairs and ethical conflicts of intelligence work. Due to the media praise of this new series I watched two episodes before deciding it was…
On September 22nd four people were killed and 17 others were injured in the shooting in Birmingham when a number of attackers got out of a vehicle and opened fire on a crowd in a public area before fleeing the scene. But, this is just one of hundreds of shooting. For each of the last four years there have been more than 600 mass shootings – almost two a day on average. The deadliest such attack, in Las Vegas in…
Well, America has elected a new president after months and months of media election reporting and it wasn’t as close as had been predicted. The majority of Americans (who elected Trump) are rejoicing and the rest of American voters are worried about disaster. Garrision Keillor’s wrote his reaction to Trump’s election:[cartoon by Greg Perry The Tyee] “So America has gone and done it, elected the evil grandpa, which goes to show that literacy is in serious decline. Nobody who read…
My father Paul Nicholas Luvera Sr. was born on March 25, 1898 and died in Anacortes, Washington on November 4, 1990 at the age of 92. I delayed publishing this because of the timimg of this year’s presidential election. You can see more details of his extraordinary life athttps://paulluverajournalonline.com/weblog/2013/11/dad-1.html for a complete history of his life. Dad was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy, the son of Niccola and Fillippa Luvera. His father and oldest brother left for Canada where they…
Here is what the New York Times Editor’s Opinion had to say: Opinion | The Editorial Board “You already know Donald Trump. He is unfit to lead. Watch him. Listen to those who know him best. He tried to subvert an election and remains a threat to democracy. He helped overturn Roe, with terrible consequences. Mr. Trump’s corruption and lawlessness go beyond elections: It’s his whole ethos. He lies without limit. If he’s re-elected, the G.O.P. won’t restrain him. Mr….
November is a time the Catholic Church remembers the dead. It’s a fitting to remember good people who are no longer with us. Here are a few special people who died during this November periord of time and who played a special role in my life. The reverend Michael J. Schmitt was born in 1929 in Port Angeles. He died at age 58 on November 10, 1987 in Auburn, Washington in an auto collision when a driver was using his…
